Muscles of the Abdomen

Abstract

The musculature of segment I of the abdomen is described in the format adopted for the head and thorax, whereas consideration of segments II–IX is restricted largely to the citation of figures and a listing of the names of muscles. The abbreviated treatment accorded the latter segments should be sufficient, however, since full parallelism in the nomenclature of the musculature of the different segments of the abdomen makes it relatively simple, in studying segments II–IX, to refer to the descriptions of serially homologous muscles in segment I. Reference to table 3 shows that differences in the pattern of musculature of segments I–VIII are minor, consisting of (1) the absence of a dorsoventral muscle (dmb-vmb) in segment I and (2) the absence of a dorsal longitudinal muscle (dmb-dmb f ) and a ventral longitudinal muscle (st-vmb) in segment VIII. The musculature of segment IX is much reduced, but the pattern reflects that of the preceding segments.